Jennifer Phegley - Courtship and Marriage in Victorian England

Jennifer Phegley, chair of the Department of English at the University of Missouri – Kansas City, examines how many of our modern marriage traditions – including wedding dresses and honeymoons – have their roots in the Victorian era.

Phegley draws on little-known conduct books, domestic guidebooks, letters, and novels to reveal the Victorian versions of “dating” and “tying the knot.” And she points out that Victorian ideas of romance may have left us with unrealistic expectations about finding our “soulmates.”